Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 23 - 29 November 2000 Issue No.509
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Urgent meeting?

ARAB countries have requested last Tuesday the UN Security Council to convene to deal with the continuing violence against the Palestinians. However, no fixed date for the meeting was immediately forthcoming from the Security Council itself.

Dutch Ambassador Peter van Walsum, who is presiding over the Security Council this month, said its ambassadors believed they should only undertake action that was supportive of the on-going efforts by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to help revive the peace process.

Back on track

OVER a month after the devastating attack on the US destroyer Cole in Aden, Yemen, the first US warship was set to pass through the Suez Canal yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said. The fast frigate Hawes was accompanying US Secretary of Defence William Cohen on his Middle East tour, Bacon noted. The Cole, which had berthed in Aden for refuelling via the Suez Canal, was the target of an attack on 12 October that blew a gaping hole in the ship's side and killed 17 US sailors. US News and World Report magazine had said late last month that because of the incident, the US Navy would be avoiding the Suez Canal route, but the navy refused to confirm or deny the report, AP reported.

Khartoum visit

Foreign Minister Amr Moussa today ends a two-day visit to Sudan where he held talks with top officials in Khartoum on efforts to restore civilian unity in Sudan. Yesterday, Moussa together with his Sudanese and Libyan counterparts Mustafa Osman Ismail and Ali Al-Trikki discussed the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative for peace in Sudan. "We still insist that this initiative could help Sudan to reach its goal of restoring total national unity," Moussa said earlier this week.

While in Khartoum Moussa also attended the meetings of a summit of the six Eastern African countries of Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD). IGAD has, for a decade, been trying to promote peace in Sudan.

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